I am not much for short stories and this is a collection of them. I have been fascinated by the novels by Toibin that I have read in the past and picked up this collection when I was in San Diego thinking that a short story now and again would not tie me up during my travels as a novel would.

Toibin is a master of what I call the “unspoken emotions”. I know that there is no way that I could write like he does. I do not understand personal relationships as he seems to.

I will now violate one of my rules in journaling this book for Book Crossing, because I believe that an example from his writing will go farther in explaining his abilities than I could ever do. I will not quote from this book, but I would like to explain the situation of one of the short stories from this book (my favorite of this collection).

The story is entitled “Two Women”.

The two women at the time of the setting of this story have never met, but each is aware of the other. One of these women is the one telling the story (I will call her the story teller). She is a very strong-willed person who is very serious about her career. She meets and falls totally in love with a wonderful man, though she cannot totally admit to herself that it is love. Her concern for her work prevents her from forming any sort of commitment. The man understands and lives by what he believes are her rules of the relationship. He has a career about which he is also serious, but his love is strong as well. A time comes when the relationship and the careers cannot coexist and there is a break. It is the woman who makes the move to end the relationship. She breaks it quickly and finally, not answering mail or calls.

Years go by and she becomes much more important in her work and is a highly respected expert in her field, though she is hard to work with and with an almost tyrannical personality. Most of her coworkers fear her. She writes that she does not know exactly how she chooses her project assistants, but it seems that when she finds someone who refuses to be cowed by her domineering personality, that person becomes the perfect assistant. She sees an article with photograph announcing when her former lover gets married. She judges from the photo that the man’s wife is a weak, mousy woman. She instantly hates her. As you can guess, that is the second of the Two Women in the title. More years pass.

Our story teller becomes more famous through the years and is sought after for her abilities. She becomes even more difficult to work with. She sees another article in the paper which announces the death of her former lover. Her bitterness grows. She realizes that she should have made an effort to see him one more time even though she did not wish to intrude on his family.

More years later, in what probably is an accident, she meets the widow of her former lover. The widow does not know her by sight. The story teller voluntarily approaches the widow and introduces herself. The widow is delighted. She tells her that she feels like she knows her very well from the stories that her husband has told her. She says that she had wanted to contact her though the years, but her husband stopped her because he said that she is tied totally to her job so much that it would disrupt her life. He said that she is a wonderful person, but her work is what she lives for. The widow wanted to contact her when her husband was dying, but he would not let her.

The teller of the tale said that she stood and told the widow that she really is happy that she did get to meet her and found her to be a wonderful lady and was a good companion to a wonderful man. She turned to walk away when the widow stopped her. She said that she wanted to tell her something that she may not know. She said that she had a long and happy wedded life and, though sorry to lose her husband, she was content. She said that she wanted the story teller to know that her husband only loved one person in his life and she, his wife, was not that woman. His life-long love was only for the woman who is telling us this story.